WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors announced 18 additional North Carolina voting cases on Oct. 29, expanding a statewide set of prosecutions involving alleged noncitizen voting in past elections.
The Justice Department said nine of the new cases were in the Eastern District, five in the Middle District and four in the Western District. The announcement brings the department’s statewide total this year to 30 people charged, including 12 previously charged in eastern North Carolina.
The charges are accusations, not convictions. Defendants are presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Although the announcement broadly describes indictments, its case summaries also identify defendants charged by criminal information. Neither charging document establishes guilt.
Prosecutors allege illegal voting and, in many cases, false claims of U.S. citizenship made in connection with voter registration or voting. The Oct. 29 announcement focuses on the 2024 election, with some case summaries also alleging participation in earlier elections.
WRAL independently reported that state elections officials supplied information used in the charging decisions. State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes told the station that officials used the federal SAVE database to flag potential noncitizens, then conducted additional analysis rather than treating a database match as conclusive.
Hayes also told WRAL that some people could have been placed on voter rolls mistakenly by DMV officials. Registration and actually casting a ballot are different acts; the report said the criminal cases have focused almost entirely on people alleged to have voted.
Voting-rights attorney Hilary Harris Klein questioned the emphasis on the cases and their timing shortly before Election Day, WRAL reported. Her comments were criticism of the enforcement approach, not a finding about any defendant’s eligibility.
The new allegations concern past voting, not proof of unlawful ballots cast in the ongoing 2026 general election. The cases will proceed through the respective federal courts, where prosecutors must establish the charged offenses.
Sources
- U.S. Justice Department, Oct. 29 charging announcement
- WRAL, charging report and interviews with elections officials and a voting-rights attorney
Photo Credit: File photograph of the Alton Lennon Federal Building and Courthouse in Wilmington, September 20, 2009, by Sanfranman59, via Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and resized; photographic adaptation licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. Context image, not the October 2026 cases.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.